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Good morning.
I'm Denise Yon.
I'm a member of the San Francisco Community Group.
And women reading women.
Today's scripture reading is from Paul's letter to the Philippians, chapter 1, verses 27, through
chapter 2, verse 11, as printed in your liturgy.
Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.
Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you
stand firm in the one spirit, striving together as one for the faith of the gospel.
Without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you.
This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved, and that by God.
For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but also
to suffer for him, since you are going through the same struggle you saw I had, and now hear
that I still have.
Therefore, if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from
his love, if any common sharing in the spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make
my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one
mind.
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.
Rather, in humility, value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests, but each of you
to the interests of others.
In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus, who, being
in the very nature of God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own
advantage.
Rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human
likeness, and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient
to death, even death on a cross.
Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name,
that the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Thanks, Denise, for that scripture reading.
And good morning, Christ Church.
It's good to be back.
I don't know if you noticed, but I wasn't here last week.
And I heard everything went beautifully.
And I really want to just give a shout out to our leaders for stepping up and allowing me
and Jonathan to get away on vacation.
Oh, thanks, Sharon.
It was a really sweet time.
I'm coming up today, this morning, kind of heavy hearted.
A part of my trip, you know, we had planned that trip to North Carolina about six months
ago, but only about less than two months ago, we had found out that the friend I'd be visiting
in North Carolina, his wife, would be needing to go through chemo and struggling with cancer.
And by the time I arrived, actually, they were already talking about palliative care.
And she just passed yesterday.
So I may actually fly out again this week.
So just a heads up.
But I really want to thank the leaders for stepping up and being the church.
You know, this isn't a one-man, two-man show.
This is the body of Christ being the church.
And I love that we can do that as a church family.
Anyway, let's pray.
Let's open up the word of God and let's hear what he has to say to us this morning.
Lord God, we thank you that you are not far from us, from our suffering.
In fact, you know it deeply because of the incarnation of your son, because your son humbled himself,
became a servant, took on human likeness to save us, not because he had to, but because he was glad to.
Well, God, would you open our eyes this morning to your love, to the beauty of the gospel.
Would you fill our hearts with praise and peace and adoration.
In Jesus' name, amen.
All right.
So I heard Jesse crushed it last week.
And I'm glad he did or else I would have given him a hard time.
He's a good buddy of mine and we try to pray together almost monthly.
And I'm so glad that you were blessed by that in Paul's letter to the Galatians.
But today we're back in Philippians.
All right.
Today we're back in Philippians.
And what we're stepping into today is the unmistakable heart of Paul's letter to the church in Philippi,
especially here in chapter 2, verses 5 through 11.
It quite possibly might be the heart of Christianity itself is what we're looking at today.
You could say that everything else in the letter, everything else in the whole of Christianity really
hovers around, frames, and flows out of this core passage.
It's truly one of the most profound and foundational passages in all of Scripture.
It's like the heartbeat of the Christian confession.
And for me personally, it's deeply, deeply formative in how I understand who God is.
And not only who God is, but how I understand what it even means to be human.
So I feel a certain weight this morning preaching this text.
I want to do it justice.
I want us to behold, you know, the beauty of what Paul wrote about here.
And I want us to behold the super unique beauty of really the whole of the Christian faith that's
kind of encapsulated here in this passage.
I just, as a heads up, we're going to be, I'm going to be speaking mostly to Christians
this morning.
But if you are here today and you're not a Christian, we're so glad that you're here and we'd
love to get to know you better.
How I would suggest that you listen to the sermon this morning is by asking the question,
what is so unique about Christianity?
What is so unique about the God of Christianity?
And why are Christians so crazy about this guy called Jesus, who they claim to be God?
All right?
So I want to invite you into that this morning.
And just to remind us of where we are in this letter, Paul's, you know, he's done his
intro, his personal opening remarks, he's told them how full his heart is with affection
for them.
He's told them that he wants all God's best for them.
And he said, yeah, I'm in chains.
Yeah, I'm in suffering.
But honestly, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain.
And that's all I care about, serving and honoring Christ.
This is what he said so far in chapter one.
But now today's passage is where he really gets into the substance and meat of the letter.
He says, yeah, I'm in chains.
Okay?
So we're going to dive right in.
Turn with me to verse 27.
Okay?
And I'm going to need you, I'll just, heads up, the beginning of the sermon's pretty dry.
Okay?
And I'm glad Chelsea's not here because she would give me an extra hard time for that.
But it's going to be a little bit dry because we're going to get a little bit technical.
We're really trying to pay close attention to what Paul is saying here.
Okay?
So verse 27, let's look at that.
So here in verse 27, what we find is the very first commandment.
The very first imperative that Paul gives in this entire letter.
This is the first time he actually commands them to do something.
And what he commands them is this.
Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.
And let's stop there for a second.
Okay?
Now in the Greek, where it says whatever happens, that's actually just one word.
And the word there simply can be literally translated only or alone.
So what Paul is basically saying is this alone I command you.
This is my one and only major command to you, church and Philippi.
Concern yourselves with only this.
And then where it says conduct yourselves in a manner worthy.
That's actually also just one word in the Greek.
It's the word polytuomai.
Polytuomai.
And if that sounds to you like the word politics, you're absolutely right.
Because see, when Paul is saying polytuomai, he's not just saying conduct yourselves in a worthy manner.
More literally what that means is be a citizen of.
Okay?
So what he is saying, if you put those together, is this.
Only this, be a citizen of the gospel of Christ.
That's his first and primary command to the church in Philippi.
This alone, be a citizen of the gospel of Christ.
Now, if you're wondering what this means, we're going to unpack it.
But before we do that, Paul goes first.
Instead of explaining what it means, he'd rather explain to us what it looks like.
Okay?
So according to Paul, what it looks like is found in the rest of verse 27.
He says,
So the picture that Paul is painting for citizens of the gospel is a picture of oneness.
A picture of unity.
That's the key word for today.
Unity.
That's the picture he's trying to paint.
A picture of standing together in the unity of the Holy Spirit and of striving together in unity of their faith.
And it's a unity that's a fearless unity.
It says in verse 28,
See, Paul is writing to them from prison, in chains, again.
And as verse 30 indicates, now some of his fellow Christians in Philippi are also following in his footsteps, finding themselves in chains and facing opposition themselves.
And what he wants them to commit to in all of this hardship is their citizenship in the gospel.
Their shared unity with Paul, with Paul's chains, and with each other as they all face opposition together.
And ultimately, their shared unity in Christ.
Their unity as a suffering people who are trying to be with Christ, for Christ, and like Christ.
Paul is saying,
Stand firm in this Holy Spirit-filled, Holy Spirit-honoring confession.
Strive together for continued unity in this counter-cultural faith.
And do not be afraid, even in the face of opposition.
For by pursuing this kind of fearless unity, Paul says,
You are bearing witness to the world that in the end, God and his people will ultimately win.
Will ultimately be saved, as opposed to God's opponents and enemies who will face destruction.
Paul pleads with them on the basis of their own experiences with the triune God and what he's done in their lives.
He pleads with them to be united.
That's what he wants for this church in Philippi.
Look at chapter 2.
He's saying,
If you have at all tasted the encouragement of being united with Christ,
if you've at all known the comfort of being loved by your Father in heaven,
and if you've at all enjoyed the fellowship and belonging of the Holy Spirit,
and surely you have, right?
Surely you've been moved by God toward tenderness and compassion.
If that has at all been your experience as a Christian, he says,
Then unite together as citizens of Christ, being like-minded, having the same love,
and being one in the Spirit and of one mind.
Okay?
Now at this point, let me pause and thank you for staying with me.
Okay?
I know I started off very exegetical, paying super close attention,
doing some heavy lifting together around Paul's logic and his language,
but let me bring it home now and show you why this is so deeply relevant for us.
You see, what Paul is doing here is profound contextual theology.
What he's doing here is, you could consider it as counter-catechesis.
He's confronting the cultural waters that this church in Philippi is swimming in every single day.
See, these Christians in Philippi lived in a world that was constantly preaching to them,
Look at the unity Rome has achieved.
Look at the peace Rome has secured.
Look at the greatness and glory of our empire.
And remember, Philippi was a proud, proud Roman colony full of veterans,
loyal Roman citizens who enjoyed the privileges and protections and the peace of the Pax Romana.
This was a city essentially being discipled by the Roman Empire
that was preaching to them every single day,
Be encouraged, be comforted, and be united in peaceful communion because Caesar is Lord.
But Paul, from prison, is commending to them a radically alternative citizenship,
a dangerous citizenship, even a treasonous alternative.
He's calling them to shift their primary citizenship,
to shift their boast, to shift their ultimate hope and joy and loyalty
and source of unity away from Rome and onto Christ.
From Caesar is Lord to Jesus is Lord.
And that's why his first, his very first command here is only this,
be citizens of the gospel of Christ.
Now, why does that matter to any of us?
Because in many ways, we're not so different from the Philippians.
We too are swimming in cultural waters that preach rival versions of unity to all of us.
Political parties promising, if only everyone voted like us, then we'd have peace.
Corporations preaching, if you buy and consume and have this certain lifestyle with our products,
then and only then will you truly belong and feel secure and feel united with the rest of society.
Or even within our families or our schools,
as long as everyone agrees on our set of values, then we'll have unity.
Just like in Paul's day, we're all being sold a million paths to unity,
and yet we find that we are all still starving for unity, aren't we?
Whether elephant or donkey, conservative or liberal, religious or secular,
nationalist or globalist, Christian, Muslim, agnostic or atheist,
we all actually want a world where we all get along.
We all want peace, stability, harmony.
Everyone longs for unity, but now if everyone in the world longs for unity,
then why are we still so deeply divided?
Well, I think the political analyst, Yuval Levin, he gets it right when he writes,
The sense that what's holding us back is our disunity,
is one sentiment that now does seem to cut across party lines.
Yet unity itself can be a divisive notion.
Americans yearning for solidarity don't always mean the same thing by it,
except in as much as they all mean they would like to see less disagreement
with their own views and priorities.
In fact, the question of just what ought to bring Americans together now
underlies a lot of discord in our politics.
In other words, our problem isn't that no one wants unity,
it's that we can't agree on what our unity should be based on.
And so we end up swinging back and forth, right,
oscillating between two broken extremes.
On one side, we've tried to create unity by enforcing uniformity,
by imposing narrow, biased and often unjust and arbitrary standards
that silence dissent and crush difference.
You have strongmen, dictators, tyrants, bulldozing their way toward order, right?
And then on the other side, we've tried to create unity
by embracing a kind of relativistic tolerance
where every viewpoint is supposedly equal,
but that too eventually collapses under its own weight
because even tolerance has its limits,
and when those limits are crossed,
it turns into its own form of intolerant canceling
and manipulative coercion itself.
You have online mobs, social media outrage, cancel culture,
all highlighting the fragility and the naivete of love as mere tolerance.
So we just continue to fight.
We continue to struggle with disunity.
Why?
Because ultimately, we have competing visions of what is ultimate,
competing visions of what is honorable,
competing visions of what it means to be truly human
and of what an honorable human life ought to look like.
See, Paul knew this.
He anticipated this.
Paul knew that the Pax Romana wasn't a true peace.
He knew that while it may have lasted pretty long
and while it may have indeed benefited a whole lot of people,
it wouldn't last forever.
And it also crushed a whole lot of other people
in the name of order and peace and unity.
And so when Paul exhorts this church in Philippi
to be citizens of the gospel, united together with Christ,
he's ultimately offering them,
he's ultimately offering all of us
who are still struggling with unity today,
he's offering the world a more worthy citizenship,
an actually pure unity,
a nobler vision of what is truly honorable.
He commends to us citizenship without superiority,
unity without coercion,
humility without compromise,
and a life of servanthood without degradation.
And he does this by pointing us to Jesus.
And in doing so shows us the most ideal picture
of who God is
and the most ideal picture of what it means
to be human at the same time.
And this is the beauty of our passage.
This right here, this is the secret sauce of Christianity.
This is what makes our faith like literally sing, okay?
So let's go to verse 3
and see how Paul suggests we arrive at unity
as countercultural citizens of the gospel.
Verse 3 says,
do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.
So first Paul tells us what not to do.
Unity will never come out of contentious,
selfish ambition or vain conceit.
And by the way, the word here for vain conceit
is also a single word in the Greek,
kenodoxia, okay?
Kenodoxia, which comes from kenos is empty,
and doxa, which is glory.
And basically it's this idea
that being empty of our true and original glory
because of sin,
we try to fill ourselves with false and empty glories
chasing after honor and status and recognition
to make up for what's missing inside.
But Paul's like, no, no.
Verse 3,
rather in humility,
value others above yourselves.
Don't pursue your own glory and value.
Humble yourself and value others above yourself,
not looking to your own interests,
but each of you to the interests of others.
What Paul commends to gospel citizens
for the sake of unity
is humility and deference
and an interest in others
that supersedes our own self-interest.
Now, I think you don't have to be Christian
to agree with this, right?
I think for most of us,
this all sounds, you know,
fine and dandy and quite commonsensical
because, you know, of course,
it's hard for any of us really,
especially us enlightened Western people
to disagree that, of course,
more humility, more unselfishness
would definitely help us move toward unity, right?
But what's unique about what Paul is doing here
is not just saying,
try to be nicer,
try to be less selfish,
try to be less vain and conceited,
try to care about others more than yourself.
No, Paul knows
that these mere suggestions
toward kindness and selflessness
will never make much of a difference
on their own.
The key for Paul,
and this is what the secular West has abandoned,
is that the reason we all value selflessness
and humility and love and sacrifice
in the first place
is because of the person of Jesus Christ,
because of the story of Jesus Christ.
And it's only when we are united with Him
that that kind of fruit
will ever begin to abound in the world.
Paul writes in verse 5,
in your relationships with one another
have the same mindset as Christ Jesus.
He brings us back to our union with Christ
and not mere moralism, okay?
And then from verses 6 through 11,
we have this stunning work
of early church doctrine.
Most commentators think it's a song
written either by someone in the early church,
maybe multiple people,
maybe by Paul,
maybe others,
but nonetheless,
it's often called the Christ hymn, okay?
This is the Christ hymn from verse 6 through 11,
written no more than 30 years
after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
And it's a hymn that Paul is either writing himself
or referring to
in order to communicate a bunch of core Christian truths
all at the same time.
And the first truth is this,
that Jesus of Nazareth
was from all eternity,
verse 6,
in very nature God.
This is what Christians have always believed
about Jesus of Nazareth.
And yet,
though being in very nature God,
we've also believed
that he did not consider equality with God
something to be used to his own advantage.
Now, some of you have,
might recall other translations.
Other translations say
he did not consider equality with God
something to be grasped, right?
Or it means like
to violently and selfishly
snatch and seize
for his own personal self-interest.
Think of that child
who maybe invites another kid from school
over for a play date.
And they're playing
and the invited kid reaches over
for one of the toys
and the host kid says,
no,
snatches it,
mine, right?
And honestly,
that child is not wrong.
That child is not wrong.
I mean,
I won't let my girls do that.
They won't get away with that.
But that child is not wrong.
It is his toy.
And in a sense,
he has a right
not to give it up.
He has a right to insist
that it is his alone
to enjoy.
But this is not what we see
in the Son of God
who is something far better
than a toy.
He is in very nature God.
He did not act this way.
He did not turn the stone
in the desert to bread.
He did not call legions of angels
to rescue him from the cross.
He did not use his divinity
for his own advantage.
But rather,
verse 7,
he made himself nothing.
Or some translations say
he emptied himself.
And this doesn't mean
that when the Son of God
became human,
he stopped being God
or he emptied himself
of his divinity.
But actually,
it says he emptied himself
by adding to himself.
Subtraction by addition.
Verse 7,
by taking on
the very nature of a servant
and being made
in human likeness.
He put on humanity
so that he was
at the same time
in one person,
100% God
and 100% human.
How does that work?
We don't know,
but we say yes, Lord,
because that's what
the Scriptures teach.
And again,
not just any kind of human though,
a servant.
You could even translate this,
a slave.
In the person of Jesus,
God himself,
the creator of the universe,
the holy I am,
who I am,
the one in whom
all things hold together,
the one and only God
took upon himself
the lowest possible
human status
in the ancient world.
Think of that image of Jesus
with a towel around his waist,
washing his disciples'
stinky feet.
Remember his words
to his feuding disciples.
You know that the rulers
of the Gentiles
lord it over them
and their great ones
exercise authority over them.
It shall not be so among you.
But whoever would be great
among you
must be your servant.
And whoever would be
first among you
must be your slave.
Even as the Son of Man
came not to be served,
but to serve
and to give his life
as a ransom for many.
As a human,
verse 8 says,
God incarnate,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient
to death.
And even the worst kind of death,
even death on a cross.
And man,
this is wild.
Let us not become
overly familiar
with this beautiful
ancient truth
that God became human,
that he became a slave.
He became a dead
human slave,
even a crucified
dead human slave.
God in Christ
didn't consider that
too beneath him.
So how then
shall we live?
Do you see
what Paul is doing?
You know,
so many people,
I was just on the phone
yesterday
with someone
who identified
as a Christian,
but to her
the essence of Christianity
was just being nice
and being accepting
and to her
the core teaching
was love your neighbors.
That's what Jesus taught.
But no,
that cannot be.
That cannot be the first
and ultimate principle
of Christianity.
That command alone
will do almost nothing
in our devastatingly
broken world.
No,
the world doesn't need
a moralistic suggestion
that we need to love more.
The world needs a God
who will show us
what real,
healing,
world-transforming love
truly is
and a God
who can do it.
A God whose initial
act of love
will empower
and inspire
all other loves.
And don't you see
that that is
what we have
in the incarnation
of Jesus Christ.
God become man
and not just man
but crucified slave.
What Paul is doing here,
what Paul is revealing
about how unity
and peace
will be accomplished
and achieved
amongst the citizens
of the gospel of Christ
is the ultimate truth
about who God is.
And that picture
is one and the same
in Jesus Christ.
You see,
in this passage,
it isn't just some
proof text from the Bible
proving that Jesus is God.
No,
it's far more than that.
The message here
is not simply
that Jesus is God
but that God is Jesus
even as a human slave
bleeding to death
on a cross
in a trash heap
outside of Jerusalem.
You know,
we tend to think
of God-likeness
as domination,
as being untouchable,
unstoppable,
invincible.
I used to play
this video game
in college
called Dota
and when you managed
to stay alive,
which was very hard
for me,
but once in a while
and you went
on a killing spree,
you would hear
the video game say,
God-like.
And it was so satisfying.
I also remember
a time playing basketball
with the youth.
I think it was
Luther George.
He would not miss.
And Eli Gilbert goes,
He's a God!
And it wasn't wrong
at all
to think of God
this way,
as all-powerful,
as undefeatable,
as someone
who never misses.
But the beauty
of Christianity
and the good news
of Jesus
is that our God,
He is so much more.
He's so much more
than that.
Like, our God
is that.
Yes, He is able.
He's able to crush
His enemies.
And yet,
also,
He's a God
who is willing
to be crushed
in the place
of His enemies.
in our place
when we were
His enemies
ourselves.
And that's a crucial
truth here
as well.
In all the disunity
we suffer and lament,
it's because of our sin.
Our sin,
our selfish ambition,
our pursuing empty,
futile glory.
From the beginning,
we gave up
our original glory
and we've been starved
for glory ever since.
Adam and Eve
and we with them,
in unity with them.
According to
our selfish ambition,
we thought
that we could be
more like God
than we already were.
And still today,
we think that we can
be everywhere.
We think we could be
omnipresent with our planes
and with our internet
connections and streaming
devices.
We think we can be
omnipotent,
just speak things
into Siri or chat
TPT and boom,
there it is.
And we think we can
be omniscient.
We think we can be
all-knowing
with more accessible
facts and data
at our fingertips
than at any other time
in human history.
And we,
like Adam and Eve,
pursue more and more
closer and closer
proximity to such
power and presence
and proficiency
because we are
seeking our own glory
rather than the glory
of God.
That is the essence
of sin.
That is the essence
of sin.
But thanks be to God
that,
as John Stott
famously wrote,
while the essence
of sin is man
substituting himself
for God,
the essence of salvation
is God
substituting himself
for man.
man asserts himself
against God
and puts himself
where only God
deserves to be,
but God
sacrifices himself
for man
and puts himself
where only man
deserves to be
on a cross.
See,
this is the stuff
that will change
the world.
This is what makes
Christianity
and particularly
the God
of Christianity
unlike any other.
This is the only path
to unity,
peace,
and order.
God,
the ultimate reality,
the I am,
who voluntarily
entered creation,
humbled himself,
and served us
unto death
on a cross.
It's the most important
truth that has changed
and will ultimately
transform the world
and our sinful,
stony hearts.
The historian
Tom Holland
in this book
Dominion
many of us
read a few years ago,
he isn't even a Christian
and yet he notices
this as well
and he writes,
to be a Christian
is to believe
that God became man
and suffered a death
as terrible
as any mortal
has ever suffered.
This is why
the cross,
that ancient
implement of torture,
remains what it
has always been,
the fitting symbol
of the Christian revolution.
It is the audacity
of it
the audacity
of finding
in a twisted
and defeated corpse
the glory
of the creator
of the universe
that serves to explain
more surely
than anything else
the sheer strangeness
of Christianity.
All are heirs
to the same revolution,
a revolution
that has
at its molten heart
the image
of a God
dead on a cross.
As Paul writes
in verse 45,
therefore,
after he mentioned
Christ becoming a servant,
Christ being obedient
to death on a cross,
therefore,
God exalted him
to the highest place
and gave him the name
that is above every name
that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bow.
At the name of Jesus
every name should bow.
The highest name,
Yahweh,
belongs to Jesus
in heaven
and on earth
and under the earth
and every tongue
acknowledge
that Jesus Christ
is Yahweh,
that Jesus Christ
is Lord,
not in opposition
to the Father,
but to the glory
of the Father.
Paul here is echoing
Isaiah chapter 45
here where Isaiah prophesied
and all the faithful
Jewish people of old
hoped for the day
when every knee
would bow
and every tongue
swear allegiance
to their God,
Yahweh,
alone.
And Paul is saying here,
yo,
that's Jesus.
The crucified slave
is Yahweh
and his Trinitarian glory
is not at all
diminished
by his self-emptying love,
but in fact,
it is magnified
all the more.
And if I could just
close with a final point
reminding you
that the incarnation
of Jesus
described here
isn't just a picture
of who God is,
but it's also
at the very same time
a picture of what it means
to be human
in the most beautiful,
the most honorable
possible way.
You know,
throughout history,
there have been
so many counterfeit models
of who is worthy
to be called a Lord,
who is worthy
to have people
bow the knee,
who is worthy
to have a high
and noble name,
and it's always
had to do with power
and strength
and force
and wealth
and beauty
and cunning
and intelligence
and all sorts
of other meritorious
factors.
But in Christ,
in Christ,
we find that
the most perfect way
to be human
is not by merit,
not by self-exaltation,
but through humbling
oneself,
emptying oneself,
making oneself
a servant
even unto death.
And this probably
sounds crazy,
probably sounds terrible
to most of us,
and many of us
are suffering
under terrible injustices
and afflictions
and terrible scarcity.
But what I believe
this is saying to us,
what I believe
Jesus shows us here
is the good news
that when we humble
ourselves
and when we face
suffering and hardship
and scarcity
even near to death,
if we are united
with Christ,
we cannot lose,
we can only win.
Our stories are never
beyond redemption
and the endings
of our stories
will one day
surely end like His
in honor and glory
beyond anything
we could have imagined.
And this is how
the gospel
inspires and empowers
our self-denying,
self-giving,
Christ-like unity
as citizens
of the gospel
and as witnesses
to the watching world.
This is how we are free
to live differently
than everyone else
in the world
who is striving
and grasping
and sweating
to make their bread.
We don't have to grasp.
We don't have to seize
in Christ.
We see the perfect model
of being human.
He humbled Himself
and then God
exalted Him
and that's a picture
of the gospel.
The gospel says
we can humble ourselves
because we trust
that God will exalt us.
We don't have to exalt ourselves
but we can trust
that we will share
in the glory
and in the imperishable
inheritance
of the beloved Son of God,
the resurrected King
of the universe.
So because of Christ,
because of Christ,
we know
that to be human
is not having to spend
the rest of our lives
anxiously
protecting our own names,
protecting our resumes,
protecting our wealth,
our comfort,
our boundaries.
No.
If Jesus did not consider
the comfort and status
of heaven
something to be grasped,
why should we feel
the need to grasp
at this or that,
at this salary,
at this lifestyle,
at this status?
What if instead
we approached
every good thing
in our life
simply as a gift from God
not to be hoarded
but to be stewarded
and shared
in the name
of Jesus
or time
or talent
or treasure
or maybe
for some of us
it's not so much
the challenge
of what do I need
to give up
and share
for the sake of others
but how can I
empty myself
by adding
adding servanthood
to my life
as Jesus did
addition
by subtraction
by addition
what might God
be calling me
what might God
be calling us
today
to pick up
and add
what particular mission
might God
be calling me
to give my life
to
but either way
whether it's
emptying ourselves
by giving
or emptying ourselves
by taking up service
if we are united
with Christ
by faith
if we believe
in the beauty
of the Christ hymn
we can rest assured
that our God
who emptied himself
for us
is the same God
who will one day
exalt us
with himself
forever
and that's the good news
of Christianity
the uniquely good news
of Christianity
will you pray with me
O Lord
make this
Christ hymn
the hymn
of our hearts
the habit
of our hands
as we go out
in the name of Jesus
not grasping
but giving
not striving
but serving
out of your abundant love
for this world
O God
make us more like Jesus
help us to enjoy
our union
and communion
with the one
who is in very nature
God
who loved us
to death
on a cross
and make the world
a different place
because of the way
that we commune with
and adore
and seek to live out
the spirit
presence of Christ
in the world
do that Lord
in us
in Christ's church
in your church
O God
for the glory
of your name
and for the good
of the nations
we pray
in Jesus' name
Amen
Thank you.